By John Moltz
January 24, 2025 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: Nobody wants this
iOS 18.3 makes some interesting AI choices, Tim Cook gets a little help from his friends, and the iPhone 17 Air bellies up to the bar.
You’re getting AI! And you’re getting AI!
Ask not for whom the AI gets an answer wrong. It gets an answer wrong for thee.
“iOS 18.3 automatically enables Apple Intelligence for users, requires opt-out to disable”
Look, if you know of a better way to say X number of customers are using Apple Intelligence at the next keynote, I’d like to hear it.
Turns out, a lot of people are not terribly thrilled with this decision. Much like how Apple touts the convenience of paying for iOS apps through its payment process when most of its customers don’t have a choice, the company is so convinced that people are going to love Apple Intelligence that it’s pushing it on them.
Well, not all of it.
“iOS 18.3 temporarily disables Apple Intelligence notification summaries for select apps, more”
Other than the part that’s getting lots of things wrong, though, it’s going great.
Still, it could be worse. Could be Siri. As Paul Kafasis notes, Siri’s record on giving the correct results of Super Bowls (Supers Bowl?) throughout the years is about as good as the Cleveland Browns’ win/loss record. The results would be considered a comedy of errors except this is sports, not comedy, and Apple frequently touts sports as one of Siri’s strengths.
Unlike me in high school.
I lettered in enthusiasm, OK?
Low friends in high places
Good new, everyone! Selling out reaps big dividends!
“Trump blasts EU for targeting Apple and other US tech giants”
It’s a good thing there aren’t any sayings about the company you keep or this could be super awkward for Tim Cook.
Of course, bluster isn’t yet stopping any of these kinds of actions.
“UK competition authority formally investigating iPhone App Store monopoly”
One day your grandchildren will ask you what you did in the great war to take Bermuda from the UK to stop its legal actions against our beloved monopolies.
“They wanted to give developers more freedom to sell their apps. We just couldn’t allow it. We fought them at the Cambridge Beaches Resort & Spa. We fought them at the Reefs Resort & Club. We had to get between the two on rented mopeds while holding drinks with umbrellas in them. It was hell.”
You might wonder how Cook can handle this but he helpfully put his ability to compartmentalize things on display this week when he appeared as a new Lumon Industries employee in a promo spot for season 2 of Severance that appeared on the platform owned by a guy with a penchant for questionable hand gestures (you can also see it on YouTube).
Tim’s seeming chumminess with the new administration is causing some discord (small “d” although some of it may actually be happening on Discord) in the Apple community. Seems that while there are benefits to the relationship, there might be costs as well.
Teach the controversy
Controversy isn’t just for AI and rolling over for despots! Remember, this is still the Apple community! If we weren’t arguing about Apple rumors, who would we even be?
Behold, what might possibly be the iPhone 17 Air. Or not.
“iPhone 17 Air leak showcases large ‘camera bar’ design”
The images depict a single camera in a camera bar extending across the width of the top of the iPhone 17.
What is this, a Pixel? We are iPhone owners, Apple. We like our cameras in a cluster in the corner that makes the phone wobble when it’s face up on the table! This is how we do.
Unbelievable.
We’ll see how customers react to a thin iPhone, yes, but one with less battery life, a worse camera, and a new look. And just when it seemed like it was all going so well.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]